Dreams of Joy: A Novel

In her beloved New York Times best sellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, and, most recently, Shanghai Girls, Lisa See has brilliantly illuminated the potent bonds of mother love, romantic love, and love of country. Now, in her most powerful novel yet, she returns to these timeless themes, continuing the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, and Pearl’s strong-willed 19-year-old daughter, Joy.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Lily is haunted by memories of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower and asks the gods for forgiveness.

Shanghai Girls: A Novel

Hoping to improve their social standing, May and Pearl's parents arrange for their daughters to "Gold Mountain men" who have come from Los Angeles to find brides. But when the sisters leave China and arrive at Angel's Island (the Ellis Island of the West, where they are detained, interrogated, and humiliated for months) they feel the harsh reality of leaving home. And when May discovers she's pregnant, the situation becomes even more desperate. The sisters make a pact that no one can ever know.

China Dolls: A Novel

It's 1938 in San Francisco: A world's fair is preparing to open on Treasure Island, a war is brewing overseas, and the city is alive with possibilities. Grace, Helen, and Ruby, three young women from very different backgrounds, meet by chance at the exclusive and glamorous Forbidden City nightclub. Grace Lee, an American-born Chinese girl, has fled the Midwest with nothing but heartache, talent, and a pair of dancing shoes. Helen Fong lives with her extended family in Chinatown, where her traditional parents insist that she guard her reputation like a piece of jade.

On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family

Out of the stories heard in her childhood in Los Angeles's Chinatown and years of research, See has constructed this sweeping chronicle of her Chinese-American family, a work that takes in stories of racism and romance, entrepreneurial genius and domestic heartache, secret marriages and sibling rivalries, in a powerful history of two cultures meeting in a new world.

The Interior: A Red Princess Mystery

While David Stark is asked to open a law office in Beijing, his lover, detective Liu Hulan, receives an urgent message from an old friend imploring her to investigate the suspicious death of her daughter, who worked for a toy company about to be sold to David’s new client, Tartan Enterprises.

Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

The story of Tzu Hsi is the story of the last empress in China. In this audiobook, Pearl S. Buck recreates the life of one of the most intriguing rules during a time of intense turbulence. Tzu Hsi was born into one of the lowly ranks of the Imperial dynasty. According to custom, she moved to the Forbidden City at the age of 17 to become one of hundreds of concubines. But her singular beauty and powers of manipulation quickly moved her into the position of Second Consort.

Dragon Bones: A Red Princess Mystery

When the body of an American archaeologist is found floating in the Yangzi River, Ministry of Public Security agent Liu Hulan and her husband, American attorney David Stark, are dispatched to Site 518 to investigate. As Hulan scrutinizes this death—or is it a murder?—David, on behalf of the National Relics Bureau, tries to discover who has stolen from the site an artifact that may prove to the world China’s claim that it is the oldest uninterrupted civilization on earth.

The Hundred Secret Senses

Years after her Chinese half sister assails her with ghost stories set in the mysterious world of Yin, a young woman finds herself in China, looking for a way to reconcile the ghosts of her past with the dreams of her future. Follow her journey, learn the truth about love, and rediscover the natural gift of your hundred secret senses.

The Red Chamber

When orphaned Daiyu leaves her home in the provinces to take shelter with her cousins in the Capital, she is drawn into a world of opulent splendor, presided over by the ruthless, scheming Xifeng and the prim, repressed Baochai. As she learns the secrets behind their glittering facades, she finds herself entangled in a web of intrigue and hidden passions, reaching from the petty gossip of the servants' quarters all the way to the Imperial Palace.

Memoirs of a Geisha

In a voice both haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri describes her life as a geisha. Taken from her home at the age of nine, she is sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. Witness her transformation as you enter a world where appearances are paramount, virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder, women beguile powerful men, and love is scorned as illusion.

The Kitchen God's Wife

Winnie and Helen have kept each other's worst secrets for more than 50 years. Now, because she believes she is dying, Helen wants to expose all that has been concealed, when she decides to celebrate the Chinese New Year by unburdening herself of everybody's hidden truths - her own and Winnie's, as well as the dreadful news that Winnie's daughter, Pearl, has been keeping from her mother.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular best seller which has sold more than 13 million copies and a critically acclaimed history of China; a tragic tale of nightmarish cruelty and an uplifting story of bravery and survival.

Before We Were Yours: A Novel

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family's Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge - until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents - but they quickly realize the dark truth.

The Diplomat's Daughter: A Novel

During the turbulent months following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, 21-year-old Emi Kato, the daughter of a Japanese diplomat, is locked behind barbed wire in a Texas internment camp. She feels hopeless until she meets handsome young Christian Lange, whose German-born parents were wrongfully arrested for un-American activities. Together they live as prisoners with thousands of other German and Japanese families but discover that love can bloom in even the bleakest circumstances.

The Valley of Amazement

Shanghai, 1912. Violet Minturn is the privileged daughter of the American madam of the city's most exclusive courtesan house. But when the Ching dynasty is overturned, Violet is separated from her mother in a cruel act of chicanery and forced to become a "virgin courtesan." Half-Chinese and half-American, Violet grapples with her place in the worlds of East and West - until she is able to merge her two halves, empowering her to become a shrewd courtesan who excels in the business of seduction and illusion, though she still struggles to understand who she is.

The Orphan's Tale

Sixteen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby. She lives above a small rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep. When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the child that was taken from her. And in a moment that will change the course of her life, she snatches one of the babies and flees into the snowy night.

Daughters of the Dragon: A Comfort Woman's Story

During World War II, the Japanese forced 200,000 young Korean women to be sex slaves or "comfort women" for their soldiers. This is one woman’s riveting story of strength, courage, and promises kept. In 1943, the Japanese tear young Ja-hee and her sister from their peaceful family farm to be comfort women for the Imperial Army. Before they leave home, their mother gives them a magnificent antique comb with an ivory inlay of a two-headed dragon, saying it will protect them.

The Women in the Castle

Set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined - an affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive novel from the author of the New York Times notable book The Hazards of Good Breeding.

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office.

Peony: A Novel of China

Young Peony is sold into a rich Chinese household as a bondmaid - an awkward role in which she is more a servant, but less a daughter. As she grows into a lovely, provocative young woman, Peony falls in love with the family's only son. However, tradition forbids them to wed. How she resolves her love for him and her devotion to her adoptive family unfolds in this profound tale, based on true events in China over a century ago.

Amy Snow: A Novel

It is 1831 when eight-year-old Aurelia Vennaway finds a naked baby girl abandoned in the snow on the grounds of her aristocratic family's magnificent mansion. Her parents are horrified that she has brought a bastard foundling into the house, but Aurelia convinces them to keep the baby, whom she names Amy Snow. Amy is brought up as a second-class citizen, but she and Aurelia are as close as sisters. When Aurelia dies at the age of 23, she leaves Amy 10 pounds. But Aurelia also left her much more.

The Moon in the Palace: The Empress of Bright Moon, Book 1

There is no easy path for a woman aspiring to power. A concubine at the palace learns quickly that there are many ways to capture the emperor's attention. Many paint their faces white and style their hair attractively, hoping to lure in the One Above All with their beauty. Some present him with fantastic gifts, such as jade pendants and scrolls of calligraphy, while others rely on their knowledge of seduction to draw his interest. But young Mei knows nothing of these womanly arts, yet she will give the emperor a gift he can never forget.

Publisher's Summary

"I finally understand what the poets have written. In spring, moved to passion; in autumn only regret."

For young Peony, betrothed to a suitor she has never met, these lyrics from The Peony Pavilion mirror her own longings. In the garden of the Chen Family Villa, amid the scent of ginger, green tea, and jasmine, a small theatrical troupe is performing scenes from this epic opera, a live spectacle few females have ever seen. Like the heroine in the drama, Peony is the cloistered daughter of a wealthy family, trapped like a good-luck cricket in a bamboo-and-lacquer cage. Though raised to be obedient, Peony has dreams of her own.

Peony's mother is against her daughter's attending the production: "Unmarried girls should not be seen in public". But Peony's father assures his wife that proprieties will be maintained, and that the women will watch the opera from behind a screen. Yet through its cracks, Peony catches sight of an elegant, handsome man with hair as black as a cave and is immediately overcome with emotion.

So begins Peony's unforgettable journey of love and destiny, desire and sorrow as Lisa See's haunting novel, based on actual historical events, takes readers back to 17th-century China, after the Manchus seize power and the Ming dynasty is crushed.

Steeped in traditions and ritual, this story brings to life another time and place, and even the intricate realm of the afterworld, with its protocols, pathways, and stages of existence, a vividly imagined place where one's soul is divided into three, ancestors offer guidance, misdeeds are punished, and hungry ghosts wander the earth.

Immersed in the richness and magic of the Chinese vision of the afterlife, transcending even death, Peony in Love explores, beautifully, the many manifestations of love. Ultimately, Lisa See's new novel addresses universal themes: the bonds of friendship, the power of words, and the age-old desire of women to be heard.

It actually began a little slowly with a focus on a love story which I typically find boring but then about an hour into the book it got very very interesting. I was spellbound and disappointed when it ended. It was a wonderful foray into the customs and spiritual world of early china.

Eloquently written and read I couldn't put this book down. Publishers Weekly sums the book up wonderfully: "Set in 17th-century China, See's fifth novel is a coming-of-age story, a ghost story, a family saga and a work of musical and social history."

It is rich in history, tradition and superstition. A friend of mine went home to China for a funeral several years back and I didn't fully understand (until now) all the things Chinese tradition believes you must to do to ensure your loved ones a safe and peaceful passage in death. A very interesting listen! As impacting, eye opening and enjoyable as Memoirs of a Geisha.

I had heard that this book was a bit slow and not as good as Lisa See's other writings, so I started reading Peony In Love expecting to be bored for the first half. I was surprised to find out that I loved the book from beginning to end. Peony in Love provides an intimate peek into the lives of Chinese women during the 17th century. This was a time of change for China when women struggled between following tradition and being basically "invisible" and their desire to explore the emotions and thoughts through writing, painting, etc. To follow the main character through life AND death gave me more of an understanding of the Chinese beliefs of the afterlife and why they follow many of the traditions that are still alive today. The love scenes were steamy and I found myself blushing in the cafeteria at work! While I found this book fascinating, I can understand why some may have found it lacking. If you do not like reading about Chinese history or tradition, you may not enjoy Peony Pavillion. See goes into great detail which may be a little tedious for some. Personally, I loved it.

When I started listening to this book, I wondered why I had selected it. I kept listening to it but about half-way through I nearly decided to give up on it and I wished I had selected the abridged version. It seemed senseless and boring. But just when I had given up hope of it ever becoming interesting, I began to understand what the book was really about.Part 2 was really the best part and I became completely involved in the story. Lisa See's addition to the end of the book was very interesting.

Bringing a beautiful rendition of a love story set in the time of the Manchu Dynasty of seventeenth-century China, 'Peony in Love' is overflowing with culture, character, and poetry.

In the audiobook version, the reader brings a delicate balance between the dialog and internal monologue of the character telling the tale - Peony herself, who has fallen in love to a man she saw against all rules and tradition, even though she is bound to someone else. Peony's tale is full of woe and love, and told with a supernatural flair that reminded me of 'The Lovely Bones,' only set in another time and place, and had the depth of culture of 'Memoirs of a Geisha.'

The book is heavy with history, the pressure and oppression placed on women in the time period, and a truly selfless kind of love story that left me smiling, even amidst the seemingly endless despair.

The Author's Notes are very worthy as well - listen to them and you'll see just how much of See's book was based on historical evidence, and you'll likely gain new respect for the author, as I did, for the efforts she undertook.

After reading two of See's other novels, I found this one difficult to listen to in the beginning. But stick with it -- it's heartbreakingly beautiful. Lisa See and Janet Song are a match made in heaven. The narration, as always, brings the characters to life.

Peony's themes are more important than the story, and better too. Once again, Lisa See opens up another well-kept Chinese secret; 17th century Chinese women used a small opening in the curtain that kept women bound to their men to write, form writing clubs, and be acknowledged as capable as men to produce serious literary criticism.
Most of the story is told through the eyes of a ghostwriter (pardon the pun) who assists her husband's next two wives to finish her commentaries on an opera called The Peony Pavillion. See's portrayal of ancient Chinese customs opens a new world to western readers, however, the constant repetition of Chinese maidens dying of lovesickness leaves one wondering if he picked up a book from the Young Adult section.

I am writing my thoughts about the book that left a great impression on me and I know my words will be read by others. I owe the freedom to do so to my sisters from the 17th Century China, and especially to the three wives of a poet, to the three courageous souls who wrote and published the first ever book by women.

“Peony in Love” is a story of WOMEN as they were before feminism stepped in. They were wives and mothers and lovers and poets; devoted to their husbands and called to serve them above all; educated for the sake of holding an intelligent conversation and being “mates” to their men and mothers in law. It is a story of a young girl’s quest for love and freedom of sharing her word with others. Young Peony dies when waiting for an arranged marriage, writing down the commentary of her beloved book, “The Peony Pavilion”. Upon death, she becomes a “hungry ghost” tortured with love, unable to proceed to the after-world due to the un-dotted tablet, eager to make her poet Wu Ren happy and fulfilled with the best wife that she tries and succeeds, after all, to “create” and guide for him. And Peony is also so eager to finish her work, her commentary, in hopes that Wu Ren hears her through the words, written by her at the age of 16, and later finished by his two other wives.

To not retell the story, masterfully woven by Lisa See in delicate word-brushes of pink and purple and yellow words, just like the most delicate Chinese silk and other books by this outstanding writer, I say that this book is much more than a tale of love. It is a story of growing as a woman and growing as a generation of women; a story of devotion to your man and a story about the importance of all types of love: romantic, sexual, soul to soul connection, mother love, daughter love; the story of strong women who seem to be so fragile and peony-like, swaying on their lily-feet. The story that one does need all bravery to do what her heart tells her do, and the story of a brave and pure heart.